Database Basics Part 3 - How to Choose

Databases are everywhere. Do you use a PDA with an address book to keep track of your clients? Maybe you have a bookkeeping package like QuickBooks to manage your company's financial records. Databases come in all sizes and levels of complexity. They're simple address books with ten fields in each record, or complex financial systems, keeping track of millions of transactions and thousands of interrelated pieces of information. Regardless of their application, they're simply databases at heart.

Over the past few months we have been looking under the hood to give you a better understanding of what a database is and how you can use one to benefit your business. For the third article in the database series, I discuss commonly available databases and how to choose between them. I will also discuss the differences between "build your own" and COTS (commercial off the shelf) database applications.

The article continues at http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/biztools/article.php/3387641